Missing Reflection
by SeaSpectre160
Summary: Wizard: It's like looking in a mirror and seeing nothing there, then one day a monster appears in the place of your reflection. Part of the World of All Riders.


**Just a look at Episodes 26 and 27 from Mayu's point of view. When I wrote this, I had recently watched 26, but it had been a while since I'd watched 27, and now Henshin Fever's video of the episode had been taken down, and all other versions I've found make my devices throw temper tantrums, including KissAsian. I think it's a problem with the devices themselves, but until I get that sorted, I won't be watching any old KR for a while. So if there are any inaccuracies, I apologise - I'm working off memory alone.**

 **On a happier note, 'Yūisei no Mōsō' is almost finished - as in, there are only two pages left.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kamen Rider Wizard or any of its characters.**

 **WORD COUNT: 1879**

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It was on a Friday night that my life as I knew it ended, but it was a whole week before I was informed of that. I was just getting back to my host residence when the man from the exchange student program pulled up to the curb. Some part of me knew that it was bad news, but I didn't know how bad.

He greeted my host family, then had me sit down in the living room and told me that my parents and twin sister were missing, that they hadn't been seen since last Friday afternoon.

I chose to finish my stay abroad, because I couldn't bear the thought of going back to that empty house. It was easy, at first, to pretend that everything was alright, but that could only last so long, as I never got any calls or emails to maintain the illusion.

When I returned home, my relatives welcomed me with open arms, not wanting me to stay in that house alone. I started attending my old school again, but it wasn't the same. My classmates wouldn't stop asking me how I was feeling (miserable), or if the police had gotten any new leads (they hadn't).

It got to be too much, so when it didn't let up even after a whole term, I begged my relatives to let me transfer to a new school. The first one to accept me met most of their expectations, except it was too far away from their home. It was close enough to my empty house, but I wasn't ready to go back there, and they weren't about to force me. So we found a compromise: the school had dormitories a few blocks away, so I could live there while attending class.

My natural shyness took over when I started, but I was just relieved when the only attention I got from classmates was the typical fascination with the 'new kid' that died out after a few weeks. I eventually made a few new friends, and they were kind and supportive. It reminded me a little bit of my sister, which was both painful and comforting.

There wasn't a day that went by in which I didn't miss my family, that I didn't wonder what had happened, and where they were. My nightmares were filled with the most horrific possibilities my subconscious could cook up. The worst ones surprisingly didn't feature any sort of blood or gore, just their voices calling out to me, begging me to help them, but I couldn't find them in the darkness. But none of my dreams could match up to the truth.

Three hundred and seventy-one days after my family's disappearance – another Friday, in fact – my world shattered again. The day started out weird as it was. I was on my way to school when I was stalked by a crazy guy in a furry vest, but thankfully a police officer got involved and dragged him away. When I actually got to school, my friends told me about how they'd been attacked by a monster that morning (only in Tokyo could you say that and not be called insane). The rest of the school day, mercifully, progressed mostly normally, aside from the strange girl who screamed and ran away from me, or the news that a new transfer student had been asking about me.

When the final bell rang, I was about to head out with my friends, but then I remembered that I'd left a textbook I would need for homework in my locker. On my way there, I was confronted by another student I'd seen earlier that day, and the same strange girl. He went on about me being in disguise and having some sort of plan, and I wondered if he was connected to the man from that morning, who'd said something similar.

Before I could ask him what the hell he meant, we all heard a scream, the guy and girl raced after it, and I followed.

My friends were being attacked by a monster again, right on school grounds. Two of them managed to run away, but Takako was trapped. The monster asked why the boy was there, calling him some sort of mage, and then it noticed me. Before my eyes, it changed its form from that of a monster with snakes for hair to that of a human girl with long, dark hair.

It was Misa-chan. Being her identical twin, I knew her face as well as I knew my own. She commented on her surprise at seeing me there, then changed back into a monster and summoned more. The 'mage' guy apologised for mixing us up before transforming into a black leather-clad warrior, as if by magic.

But none of that interested me. All I knew was that my sister had come back into my life, but she was so different, and not just because of that monstrous form. Her smile when she saw me was cold and smug, with none of the warmth and love Misa-chan always carried with her. It was like looking in the mirror and seeing a stranger looking back.

Misa, whatever she was now, soon left, and the strange group took me and Takako to an antiques shop, where the owner gave us some tea to help us calm down. They said that Misa-chan had become a monster called a Phantom, and that she'd targeted Takako because she was something called a 'Gate'. I didn't understand what that meant, only that Takako needed their protection.

As for me, they didn't seem to know what to do with me. I told them my story, and they were sympathetic, but they told me that the monster wasn't really Misa-chan, that while Medusa had her face and her memories, my sister was dead, had died when the monster was created.

But while they were talking to me and Takako, my phone buzzed with a text message.

From Misa.

She was asking me to meet her at our family's house, saying she needed me and that I was the only one who could help.

I had spent a year sitting by and just waiting for news of my family, while my twin, my other half, had probably been suffering. My parents, too. How could I turn my back on them now that I finally had a chance to help?

But I couldn't bring these other people with me. Maybe they had the best intentions, but they'd already given up on any hope that Misa-chan was still in there. And they would insist on coming with me if they knew I was meeting her. So I lied and told them the message was unimportant.

The strangers insisted on letting me sleep over, while Takako-chan was escorted home by my morning stalker (who apologised when prompted for accosting me like that) and the 'strange girl' from school who turned out to be a guy in disguise. I had more nightmares that night, this time of Medusa taking my family away from me, and of my parents also turning into shadowy monsters. I was the only one in my family who was free; all I knew was that I had to save them.

I slipped out early in the morning, before the mage and his friends woke up, and went straight to my old house. Misa-chan was waiting for me, sitting on the white-sheet-covered couch in the living room.

She told me that she'd lost most of her memories, and that she needed my help getting them back. I noticed that she was still acting differently, but I thought it was just because she was still fighting the monster, Medusa, on the inside. I showed her the charm she'd given me before I'd left home, and told her how it'd been the only thing keeping me from falling apart when she went missing.

Then everything suddenly turned on me. Misa-chan gave me that cold, heartless smile when I gave her the charm, and gladly recounted the tale of how she – Medusa – had come home after being created and killed both my parents. Then she crushed the charm in her hands and discarded the pieces on the floor in front of me.

Like the charm, I too was crushed. All this time, I'd been hoping, dreaming that my family was out there somewhere, that we could be together again someday. But for all that time, I'd been an orphan and an only child, dreaming of things I could never have. My parents… my sister… they were never coming back to me.

Something inside me stirred, something dark and unpleasant, and I dropped to my knees as the pain began. Medusa told me that I was a Gate, just like Takako was, just like Misa-chan had been. As I gave in to the despair, a new Phantom would be born from my body. Just as Medusa had been born from Misa-chan's.

All I could think of was my loss. It consumed me, filling my mind with my family and the knowledge that I was never getting them back. I couldn't go on without their support; what was the point of even trying? I remembered the day Misa-chan gave me the charm, how supportive and encouraging she'd been when I'd been scared. She didn't deserve to die. She didn't deserve to be dead while the thing that killed her continued to walk the Earth.

Anger filled me at that thought. Medusa should not be allowed to live, to wear my sister's face as she committed more acts of evil. Was it not my duty to my family to stop her? Never mind that I didn't know how.

I couldn't die here; I still had unfinished business in this life – a purpose.

New strength filled me. If my family could no longer support me, I would support their memory by avenging their deaths. Like it or not, I had to be the strong one, now.

I stood, only faintly wondering how I'd gotten outside or when the mage and his friends had arrived. Medusa was shocked that I was alive and standing, and I swore vengeance on her. Before she could attack me, however, she was chased away by another masked mage, this one in white. He told me that because I'd held onto hope through the despair, I now possessed magic as well. Then he offered to teach me how to use it.

This was what I'd wanted: to avenge the wrongs done to my family by killing Medusa. I didn't just have a purpose, I now had a way to fulfil it. So despite the worries of the others present, I said yes.

My life as I knew it had once again been turned on its head, but this time, I wasn't simply along for the ride. This time, I would be strong.

THE END


End file.
